Briand 2023 - Domaine du Mazel

I met Jocelyne and Gérald after Claire, who runs la Tour Cassée in Valvignères with her husband Jean-Claude, insisted I visit them while during a stay in 2021. She kindly arranged a tasting at their cellar for the following morning. The gesture was my introduction to the generosity of spirit with which anyone who has visited the region is familiar. The tasting the following morning was an education in wine that i will never forget, free from the pretence and ego that too often characterises encounters with vigneron(ne)s of such esteemed reputation.

A venerable estate of Ardèche wine, Domaine du Mazel was founded in Valvignères by Jocelyne & Gérald's grandfather in 1919. Today, Gérald and Jocelyne farm twenty-two hectares or so around the valley, selling some fruit to local winemakers and making about 60,000 bottles per year themselves.
Le Mazel is a prelude for many of the region’s wine successes in recent decades with the likes of Sylvain Bock, Andrea Calek, Jerome Jouret, and Anders Frederik Steen all having worked with or at the estate before going out on their own. Gérald's influence can be felt throughout southern Ardèche, where the collaborative spirit he helped to cultivate has fomented a vibrant, dynamic scene that has few comparisons in the world of wine.
When the siblings took over from their father in 1982, they continued as coopérateurs, remaining active to the point that Gérald would become its vice president. Convinced by his wife, who had travelled with a friend to work in Beaujolais with Jean-Paul Thévenet, that something very interesting was happening in the region, Gérald travelled north, where over several visits he befriended Marcel Lapierre and Jacques Neauport. Inspired by the wines they were making, Gérald brought their methods back to Valvignères and decided to chart a new direction for his family's estate. They left the cooperative and began vinifying themselves, using Carbonic maceration for the reds, no filtration and no sulfitage. This was a radical move from Gérald, though perhaps more viable in Valvignères, which had long been seen as an agricultural, workhorse grapegrowing enclave that offered little in the way of quality. The freedoms this offered, alongthe size of their estate and their ability to sell fruit, le Mazel could absorb the mistakes that came with learning to make wine this way, often keeping wines in their cellar for years before their release when they started off. They slowly moved away from barrels, preferring steel, and these days their cellar is stacked with great big stainless steel vats along with a large wooden basket press. Having narrowing the aperture of their intention the couple now make wines built on purity of fruit and mineral vitality, and the siblings produce some of the most rewarding wines money can buy. Developing their intuitions over 5 decades, nobody quite understands the subtleties of growing grapes and making wine in this valley quite like Gérald & Jocelyne.

Historically overlooked and ignored, Valvignères has emerged as an epicentre for progressive viticulture and winemaking in the 21st century. Existing in the shadow of the hulking economy of the Rhone valley, the small valley west of le Teil made its name when Gérald Oustric and his sister Jocelyne decided to cease selling their fruit to the local co-op(which Geralds father helped found in 1919) to begin producing wines themselves. Having farmed organically since the 80s, Gérald had been convinced to make his own wine after several trips to Beaujolais in the 80s, where he met Jacques Neauport, Jules Chauvet, Pierre bonneton et al. This move would have significant domino effects, with Gerald adopting Carbonic maceration for his reds, no filtration or fining, and no sulfitage in his cellar. This freed to small region from the shackles of the establishment in the region and reconnected with the valleys historical winemaking traditions(Valvignères comes from the Roman Vallis Vinaria, meaning valley of vines). Gerald would go on to mentor 15 growers in the region, cultivating a spirit of collaboration and sharing of ideas that existed few other places in France. The wines from cellars in this cluster share an irresistably heady, telluric, and deeply soulful quality that makes them great value and well worth exploring. In terms of geology, we are almost in the south, but noticeably cooler than you might find just 20km south. Situated on what's traditionally known as the Bas Vivarais, the soils are predominantly clay and limestone, with outcrops of marne bleue and basalt.

Grapes: Grenache

Region: Valvignères, Ardèche, France

ABV: 13%